This just in … New Year’s Day is the second most popular holiday for car thieves.

A new study from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (pdf) reports that New Year’s Day is the No. 2 holiday for car theft, with 2,286 vehicles reported stolen in 2011.

No surprise, Halloween clocked in at No. 1 — with 2,328 thefts reported in 2011, according to the NICB report.

So why the heck is New Year’s so popular with car thieves?

Most experts speculate that the heavy use of alcohol at holiday parties, which makes revelers more careless about where they park their ride, is a major factor in the uptick in illegal activity.

An interesting write-up from TheCarConnection.com on the NICB study pointed out that Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day had the lowest reported thefts among all big holidays. That report pointed out that, unlike New Year’s, those holidays are more family-focused and end up with revelers most like at or near their home — instead of carousing downtown.

Well, it’s 2013, don’t wait around to end up like the “other guy” — resolve to keep your vehicle safe with a Viper system right away!

Think your car is safe when you drop it off at the dealership for a repair or what have you?

Well, apparently not at Autobarn Volkswagen in the Chicago area. One poor woman named Leanne Digan dropped off her ’06 Passat to fix or replace her remote key device.

To her surprise, that would be the LEAST of her worries!

While in their possession, the vehicle was stolen (and later recovered but stripped of all valueable parts).

A hard lesson to learn — but she would’ve been better off going to a car audio shop instead where she could’ve replaced the factory key with an aftermarket security system that would’ve alerted her that thieves were working the Volkswagen lot.

Let Digan’s experience be a lesson for everyone! Let’s not be so trusting, but fight back and work to protect our property by getting an effective alarm system! Imagine how the plot of this tragic experience would have shifted if she had only had an efficient car alarm — or had been able to GPS track her car! Maybe the people at the dealership would have been more aware of the situation? Or maybe they could have stopped it?

Moral of the story: Don’t wait around until it’s YOU that had to learn the hard way, be one step ahead of the game!